Friday, May 31, 2013

The bulletin refers specifically to Defense Distributed, a nonprofit company started by a University of Texas law student, which has successfully made and fired a 3D gun whose only metal parts are the bullets and a small firing pin. Some 100,000 plans for a gun called "The Liberator" were downloaded in just a few days before May 3, when a branch of the U.S. State Department told it to stop sharing the file. But the government bulletin seems to acknowledge that the genie is out of the bottle.

"Limiting access may be impossible," concludes the three-page bulletin.

Today we should see revised language for HB0183. As all of you know we have been working very hard for concealed carry for a very long time.

For me it has been 27 years and for others like Jim Vinopal it has been twice that long. Today at some time we will see language for an amendment to HB0183. We will all have to read the bill and decide if we can support it or not or just remain neutral .

For me 27 years of work will have to be decided upon in an hour.

Whatever that decision is it will be for, in our opinion, the best thing to do for Illinois State Rifle Association members and gun owners across the State of Illinois. I don’t know what else to tell other than the fight will not be over.

Whatever the case some kind of concealed carry will come to Illinois. Some believed it would never happen. Many of our good members have passed away waiting for concealed carry to come to Illinois. I was thinking about them today. I could see their faces but I have to tell you I could not remember all their names. We should all be grateful for their efforts and remember that freedom comes at a dear price. In any case, I hope they are looking down on us and see that concealed carry come to Illinois.

I also wonder, not just today, but often, how many lives were wasted because we did not have concealed carry in Illinois. I hope those people are looking down on us and are comforted by knowing many lives will be saved and others will not have to suffer the untimely death they suffered.

I also remember the endless string of enemies we have faced in our quest for concealed carry and our seemingly endless efforts to preserve the Second Amendment in Illinois. Many of those enemies will see Illinois get concealed carry first hand.

Many of our enemies have passed away also. I hope they are looking up and see concealed carry come to Illinois.

Richard Pearson
ISRA Executive Director

About:
The ISRA is the state’s leading advocate of safe, lawful and responsible firearms ownership. Since 1903, the ISRA has represented the interests of over 1.5 million law-abiding Illinois firearm owners Visit: www.isra.org

The resident, Tami Takach, was sleeping when she heard what sounded like a door slamming. Takach said she quickly got out of bed, grabbed her gun and made her way downstairs -- and did not even blink an eye.

Officials said when they arrived, they found Geary, who was being held at gunpoint by Takach. They arrested him on burglary charges as well as possession of criminal tools.

Authorities say a man who lives at a home near St. Peters was awakened about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday by someone beating on his bedroom door. The man picked up a shotgun and opened the door, confronting a naked intruder. The man kept the suspect at bay until St. Charles County deputies arrived.

A local convenience store clerk was able to fire several rounds at an armed robber early Sunday morning after the unidentified man tried to take money from the store and beat the clerk with the butt of a pistol.

The Conroe Police Department is searching for the attacker, described as a slender black male, average height and in his late teens or early 20s. The man, according to the clerk, was wearing a mask.

Shelves of the Walmart on 24th St. have a few boxes of .38, .40, and .380

I was pleasantly surprised to see a few boxes of pistol ammunition along with the 12, 16, 20, and .410 birdshot shotgun loads on the shelves of this Walmart. The clerk said that they had been delivered today, but I saw them at 2:30 pm. He said that .223 cartridges were out the door within an hour, as were any .22 that they received.

As usual, they had plenty of .270 Winchester, .270 WSM, .300 Winchester, .300 WSM, and some .22-250. They also had a good supply of .410 2 1/2 inch defense loads designed for the revolvers that take them.

I then went to the largest gun store in town, Sprague's. I was pleasantly surprised to see cases of .223 for sale piled on the floor.

While the prices were about 60 cents a round, at least it was available.

They had .22 ammunition on the counter, limited to two boxes per customer.

They had most pistol calibers available, limited to one box per customer.

They also had cases of 7.62x39 and .308 (7.62x51) for sale, even if it was steel cased ammunition from Russia.

I asked the clerk if the ammunition supply was easing, and he said that they were still short, but they had a bit more than at their lowest point.

When I asked how they were able to have a better supply than most, He said "We have been here for 60 years, and we pay our bills."

I have been reading other reports from around the country that the supply of ammunition may be starting to catch up with demand.

On a day that we honor those who fought in defense our Constitutional rights, we’d like to shine a light on a court case in Florida that, though only quietly gaining media attention, we feel speaks quite loudly about the obstacles and prejudices veterans face back home (and echoes the current state of our inalienable rights). Florida Carry, Inc., a non-profit carry and gun rights organization, has filed a lawsuit against the City of Daytona Beach (as well as two other individuals) on behalf of an unnamed combat veterans for unlawfully refusing to return firearms seized by law enforcement—a disturbing trend in the Sunshine state with a nickname, ‘Baker Acting’.

The lawsuit claims that the Plaintiff, who is referred to as “A.B.” in an effort to preserve the man’s privacy as well as, in his attorney’s words, to maintain “the protection of confidential mental health information and allegations by the Defendant”, reached out to a Veteran’s Assistance hotline in December 2012 for help with depression. Looking for someone to talk to, the VA hotline operator instead called the local police, who contacted the honorably discharged veteran and eventually committed him for an involuntary psychological evaluation. This included the confiscation of all of the man’s guns, which his attorneys emphasize was done without his consent. These guns, along with a bow, ammunition and some other “protective gear’ have not been returned to him.

Instead, after being released from his involuntary examination and deemed fit by mental health professionals, A.B. was told he would have to provide “affidavits from others, including additional mental health professionals” before he would see his guns again. He claims to have done just this, obtaining the requested documents, only to be informed that “the return of his property would require a court order”.

This final bit is patently false and in direct violation of Florida state law, though apparently this violation that has become increasingly common in a state that is no stranger to gun rights cases. Since a 1987, local governments in Florida have been sworn to uphold all state laws without enacting their own conflicting ones and a 2009 opinion by the Florida Attorney General made clear that continuing to detain a person’s firearms after they have cleared the state’s mental health examination is a violation of state (if not federal) law.

An Oregon man has had rifle confiscated and is facing criminal charges after he attempted to stop a wanted felon from breaking into his home by firing a warning shot.

(snip)

Military veteran Corey Thompson, 36, told KDRV-TV that the wanted felon was trying to beak into his home via the back door. Defending his property, Thompson said he warned the criminal that he was armed and he was giving him his one and only warning shot.

“This is the end result. You break into someone’s house, there’s consequences,” Thompson said.

Wielding his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, the veteran made good on his threat and fired one warning shot. The bullet did not strike the suspect or anyone else.

An overwhelming majority of British citizens want their country’s handgun ban repealed, according to the results of an on-line poll conducted by the Daily Telegraph, described Wednesday as the United Kingdom’s “most widely read broadsheet newspaper” by the Commentator.

As this column was updated Thursday, more than 14,900 votes had been cast in the unscientific poll, and of those, 12,603support a repeal of the 1997 gun ban, an 84.35 percent vote. It far out-distanced votes for several other measures that Britons would like to see introduced in the House of Commons, according to the newspaper.

For anti-gunners on both sides of the Atlantic, it is a devastating rejection of the gun ban philosophy. The ban was enacted following the Dunblane school massacre. The Commentator noted, “While gun crime soared after the British ban in 1997, rates of gun violence have fallen, especially in British cities, following more spending by police forces into tackling gun crime. Police in England and Wales recorded 5,911 firearms offences in 2011/12, a reduction of 42 percent compared with nine years earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics.”

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Cases like this are exactly why if your state does not have a self defense immunity law, you need to be pushing for one. Many states have laws stating that if a shooting is ruled justifiable you cannot be sued in civil court over the incident.

On to the story. In New Mexico a widow is suing a store clerk who shot and killed her husband when he tried to rob the clerk’s store in 2010.

The widow’s case alleges that the shop clerk bears more of the blame for her husband’s death than her husband does because he had time to call the police instead of shooting her armed husband.

Dori thinks it should be legal to use deadly force to protect your property, but Spokane prosecutors disagree. They announced Wednesday that they are charging Gail Gerlach, who shot and killed a carjacker, with First Degree Manslaughter.

According to reports, 56-year-old Gail Herbert Gerlach had left his Chevy Suburban running in his driveway to warm it up on a cold day in March when Brendon Kaluza-Graham tried to drive away with it. Gail fired his gun, hitting Brendon in the head and killing him.

Gail said he saw Brendon raise his arm in his direction; he thought Brendon had a gun. But police later searched the car and didn't find a weapon.

After the shooting, KREM TV reported that Kaluza-Graham had been caught stealing cars four times in the past, and had been convicted of assaulting a police officer. Police report that he'd had multiple run-ins with law enforcement where he had been armed with knives.

The DEFCAD community has released an upgraded version of Defense Distributed Liberator 3D printed pistol.

As they are individuals on the Internet and not an organization, they have never received a letter from any government entity asking them not to distribute computer files.

Improvements include barrels for the .25 ACP cartridge and for the .45 ACP cartridge. No information was supplied to determine if any test firing of these cartridges has been done.

I suspect that the .25 ACP version would work, but I have doubts about the .45 ACP barrel. While the working pressures are similar to that of the .380 ACP cartridge used in the original version, the overall force exerted is much greater.

The new files include SLDPRT ( The SLDPRT file extension is associated with the SolidWorks application used to create 2D and 3D CAD designs); STEP (File Format Description: 3D model file formatted in STEP (Standard for the Exchange of Product Data), an ISO standard exchange format; and STL (STereoLithography) is a file format native to the stereolithography CAD software created by 3D Systems.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

A Florida constitutional challenge to their open carry ban is going forward.

On 19 February, 2012, Dale Norman, who had recently been issued a concealed carry license, was arrested for openly carrying a firearm in a holster on his hip. The weight of the pistol had caused his shorts to sag, exposing part of the pistol, attracting the attention of at least one member of the public, who brought it to the attention of the police, who arrested Mr. Norman.

1. Is Florida’s statutory scheme related to the open carry of firearms constitutional?

2. Do the exceptions to the prohibition against open carry constitute affirmative defenses to a prosecution for a charge of open carry or does the State need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a particular defendant is not conducting him/herself in the manner allowed?

3. Does the recent “brief and open” display exception unconstitutionally infect the Open Carry Law by its vagueness?

The County Court has certified the constitutional questions directly to the 4th District Court of Appeals as questions of great public importance. The DCA has accepted jurisdiction.

The Florida Attorney General's Office filed an extraordinary motion with the Florida Supreme Court attempting to prohibit the 4th District Court of Appeals from hearing the case. Mr. Norman's Attorney filed a motion to strike or deny the Attorney General's baseless motion. On April 19th, 2013 the Florida Supreme Court denied the AG's attempt to derail the appeal to the 4th DCA.

This looks like a very interesting case, if for no other reason than the effort put forward by the State to try to prevent the case from being heard.

An initial brief on the merits of the case has now been heard by the appeals court.

The Appellee's date for answering the brief is currently 21 June, 2013.

A suspected robber who tried to hold up an ACE Cash Express in north Houston is in the hospital after he was shot by the husband of one of the store’s employees.

Houston police said the attempted robbery was reported around 8:30 a.m. Monday at the store on East Tidwell Road and Airline Drive.

"An employee was ambushed at this store,” said Sgt. Francisco Fernandez with the Houston Police Department. “Two males apparently broke in through the roof."

(snip)

Police said the employee’s husband, who was a concealed handgun license holder, was with her. He took off after the men and pointed his gun, pulling the trigger and shooting one of the suspects in the arm. He held him down until police arrived.

Herbal Connections is just two doors down from Garland Tattoo and Piercing, where D.J. Nill works. “I heard something that sounded like a gunshot,” he said. But the robber ran off in the other direction, and employees didn’t see anything, he said.

A pit bull was running loose Sunday near the residential area of Mallard Lane when it began attacking another dog that was being walked on a leash by it's owner, according to the sheriff's department. The homeowner heard the owner of the dog that was under attack screaming for help and "came to the aid" of the dog owner by shooting the pit bull, which was released to its owners for care.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Howenstein was wearing a bulletproof vest and military-style clothing, police said, when he approached the home with a gun and attempted to rob the residents. The neighbor heard the commotion and came to the rescue, police said.

A Brewton man held a home invasion suspect at bay with a shotgun early Sunday morning until deputies could arrive and make an arrest.

The suspect, identified as 20-year old Glenn Phillips of East Brewton, was allegedly walking along Travis Road about 2 a.m. when came to a house, kicked in the door and entered, according to Escambia County (AL) Chief Deputy Mike Lambert.

A dog inside the home cornered Phillips, giving the resident time to retrieve his shotgun and call 911. The victim held Phillips on the floor with the shotgun until deputies arrived and arrested Phillips without incident.

A man tried to break into a woman's bedroom in the middle of the night. She said she was able to scare him off when she got her gun.

This happened near Union and Platte in Colorado Springs. Diana Richter woke up to a man popping off the screen to her bedroom window. She opened fire toward him with a gun after she shouted warnings at him several times.

The article below is from the feinsteinproject. I just added the picture and title.

You're going wait, wait, wait. Even if you WANT to build a gun out of plastic blocks, a gun made out of plastic is just a toy. Even that 3-D printed single shot is just a single shot toy.

Ah. Let's talk about the AR-15, designed by Eugene Stoner in 1958. In the conventional fashion, he attached the barrel to a metal receiver that the bolt slides back and forth in. The bolt is roughly a cylinder that slides back and forth on most guns, and has little hooks and lips to pull the fired case out of the barrel, and push the new one in.

What Mr Stoner did differently in the AR was use TWO receivers - an UPPER receiver, that the barrel screws into and the bolt slides in, and a LOWER receiver, that holds the trigger, the hammer, the magazine, and the stock. Since the magazine well (what the magazine slides into) has a nice flat surface, Colt ended up putting the serial number on the LOWER receiver when they began civilian sales in 1963.

In the 1980's, it became popular to build one's own AR, using parts from various manufacturers, and at some point, the BATFE (who regulates guns in the US) made the decision the LOWER receiver was the actual gun. That is, you can buy barrels, triggers, stocks, and the UPPER receiver all day long off the interwebs, but you can only buy a new LOWER receiver from a Federally licensed gun dealer - unless you make one yourself.

So it turns out, an AR lower is just a hunk of aluminum with certain holes in certain places. It doesn't weigh very much. Any reasonably competent machinist can make one - and they do. You can even make one at home, if you have a $500 Chinese mill. There has been an explosion in companies that produce AR lower receivers.

About that plastic thing - in 2000, Cavalry Arms begin production of a plastic AR lower receiver with an attached plastic stock. They attached the stock, because they had discovered a weak point in the AR lower, which they reinforced by making the butt stock (the back end) of the gun a single piece with the lower receiver. All the other regular AR parts fit on the Cav Arms lower receiver - triggers, magazines, upper receivers, barrels, etc.

So - by 2000, you had 4 choices if you wanted an AR. You could buy a complete new rifle from a gun dealer, or a used one from someone who had. You could buy just an aluminum AR receiver from a gun dealer, and buy all the other parts online, and build it yourself. You could MAKE an AR receiver from a hunk of aluminum on your $500 Chinese mill, and then bolt on all the other parts. Or, you could buy a PLASTIC lower receiver from your gun dealer, made by Cav Arms, and assemble it yourself.

Enter Defense Distributed. They recognized you could make your own lower receiver at home. They recognized that the AR lower could be made of plastic. And they realized with the correct design, one could 3-D print a plastic lower on a 3-D printer. So as of 2013, you have a fifth choice if you want an AR - you can PRINT a plastic lower.

So what does this have to do with plastic bricks? Easy. If you don't have a $500 Chinese mill & a $100 hunk of aluminum, or a $550 3-D plastic printer, it's off to the gun dealer with you, right? Maybe. Or maybe you can dig into your kids' toy box, sit at your kitchen table, and build an AR lower out of the plastic building bricks you already have in your house.

So - we offer you a sixth choice in the route to owning an AR. You don't need a $500 piece of equipment to make aluminum chips or plastic shapes, and you don't have to walk down to your gun shop. You need some ABS glue, some time, and a lot of plastic bricks and patience.

Monday, May 27, 2013

Australian police in New South Wales have printed out two versions of the liberator 3D printed pistol and tested them to destruction. No technical details of the testing were released, just videos of the guns blowing up. The video does not show any cartridges used, nor does it detail the type of plastic used.

These are critical elements for anyone trying to actually understand what happened. Without this information, the video is just political theater, propaganda designed to frighten timid people away from this technology.

Compare the test fire shown in the New South Wales video with that shown in the recent video from the Defense Distributed web site.

It is clear that the New South Wales produced pistols use a different plastic; that the pins are plastic instead of the metal ones in the Wisconsin Lulz design, and that the resolution on the New South Wales design is significantly coarser than on the Lulz produced product.

The New South Wales serves as a useful reminder that all homemade firearms should be function tested remotely before use.

Intruders kicked in the door of a ground level apartment Friday morning, only to get more than they bargained for when the homeowner retaliated.

(snip)

Police say the homeowner saw that the suspects were armed and fired his own weapon at them. He shot at the suspects three times, scaring them off. None of the bullets hit them, but the suspects got spooked and ran away.

HOUSTON (CBS Houston) After a son watched as his dad was being attacked, that son killed his father’s attacker.

The incident happened in the early morning hours of Saturday, outside the family’s home on Greenland Oaks Court near Park Spring Drive in north Harris County.

An attorney for the family stated that a man on a motorcycle followed the family home. The biker allegedly started beating up the dad. It was then that one of the boys in the family grabbed his dad’s gun and shot and killed the biker.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Cleveland,Ohio, will be hosting a gun turn in event on 15 June, 2013. While these events are commonly labeled with the propaganda term "buyback" the guns were never owned by the people attempting to buy them.

The event will be held at Public Safety Central located at 2001 Payne Avenue, between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.

Gift cards of $100 will be given to those who turn in a handgun, $200 will be given to those who turn in semi-automatic Assault Rifles (no definition given). No gift cards will be given to those turning in ordinary rifles and shotguns, but they will be entered into a raffle for the chance to receive $1,000.

Across the country, communities, police departments and churches are sponsoring gun turn-ins to get "guns off the street". At many of these events, private buyers are showing up, offering cash for the more valuable guns. These private additions to the public turn-in are effective, no doubt, in getting more guns off the street, because they add to the resources that are available to those who want to get rid of guns for something of value, be it a grocery card or a number of twenty dollar bills.

You can help make the turn-in in your area more effective by standing on the curve with your "Cash for Guns" sign, or at a folding table, willing to offer more than the gift card for firearms that are more valuable. It would be best if numerous private parties were available, as more good guns could then be transferred into responsible hands.

This action serves many useful purposes. It stretches the turn-in budget so that more guns can be taken off the street. It helps keep fearful widows from being defrauded of most of the market value of the gun they are turning in. It prevents valuable assets from being destroyed by bureaucratic inflexibility. It is a win-win-win situation.

It also dispels the pernicious message that guns are bad and should be destroyed.

DETROIT (WWJ) - Police say one person was killed when gunfire erupted outside of a gas station on Detroit’s west side.

The shooting happened around 2 a.m. Thursday at a Citgo gas station near Linwood and Davison.

A man was filling his tires with air when someone approached and tried to rob him at gunpoint, according to reports. The man pulled out a gun to defend himself and a shootout occurred. Both ended up firing at each other, with the victim chasing the suspect away from the gas station.

Police say the suspect’s body was found in an alleyway across the street from the gas station. The victim also suffered a gunshot wound, but is expected to be OK. An investigation is ongoing.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A woman shot a man who tried to get into her home on 106th and Greenwood Thursday afternoon in Kansas City, Mo.

Shirley Roberts, 52, told police three young men tried to break into her home around noon Thursday.

According to Roberts, the men pulled in front of her home and went to her front door and tried to get in. When the men couldn’t, Roberts said the men then put on blue rubber gloves and tried to get into her back door.

It was then that Roberts, home alone, grabbed a gun and fired a single shot through her glass back door, hitting one of the men in the chest.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

This video was found at Defense Distributed. It shows the test firing of the Lulz Liberator, a $25 3D printed pistol. It is only 30 seconds long, so it has been edited to only show the firing. The video loads quickly.

The apparent home intruder who died Wednesday after being shot by the homeowner has been identified as Henry Thomas Johnson III, 37, of Helena.

Lewis and Clark County Coroner Mickey Nelson said Johnson died Wednesday from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

Patrol Capt. Jason Grimmis of the Lewis and Clark Sheriff’s Office said dispatchers received a 911 call at about 2:40 p.m. Wednesday from the homeowner at 4276 Canyon Ferry Road, near the intersection with Ranger Drive.

The homeowner reported arriving home to find a suspicious car at the residence, and then entered the residence and encountered the intruder, Grimmis said.

The homeowner shot his gun and the intruder was hit, Grimmis said. The intruder was able to exit the home through a window and enter his Ford Taurus, and then crashed it into a fence on the property.

A man who forced his way into a Union County home early Thursday was shot and killed by an occupant of the residence, according to the sheriff’s office.

Calling the case a “home invasion,” detectives say the intruder tried to escape after being shot but never made it past the front yard of the house.

The incident happened shortly before 1 a.m. at a home in the 3400 block of Lanesboro Road, off Ansonville Road. That is north of Marshville, in the northeastern part of Union County.

Capt. Ronnie Whitaker says someone inside the home called 911 and said an intruder, wearing a mask and pointing a gun, had forced his way into the residence. An occupant was able to get to a loaded gun and fire a shot at the man, Whitaker says.

A 19-year-old man has been identified as a suspect in an attempted burglary at a home Tuesday afternoon in suburban Delray Beach.

Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies alleged that Jephte Madeus tried to break into a house in the 5100 block of Palm Ridge Boulevard, just west of South Military Trail and south of Woolbright Road. The alleged burglary attempt happened just after 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Madeus was armed with a stolen .380 Ruger semi-automatic handgun, sheriff’s office investigators said. A 15-year-old boy, and alleged accomplice to Madeus, was shot in the arm by a resident of the home.

The California state Senate voted 28-8 Wednesday to exempt itself from the pointless gun-control laws that apply to the rest of the populace. Legislators apparently think they alone are worthy to pack heat on the streets for personal protection, and the masses ought to wait until the police arrive.

This is just one of many bills Golden State politicians used this legislative session to set themselves apart from the little people, the ones who pay their inflated salaries. Annual compensation for legislators averages about $140,000, not counting luxurious perks such as taxpayer-funded cars and free gasoline. By comparison, the average Californian earns $50,000 a year, and the unemployment rate is 11.9 percent - far above the national average. Exact salaries for state assemblymen and senators are obscured by the use of a “per diem” payment scheme that shelters a significant chunk of income from taxation.

During much of the United States' existence, a significant portion of the population lived near the uncivilized frontier. The frontier was a place where the laws of civilization did not reach, where Judeo/Christian morals were not in the ascendancy, a place of danger, where travelers must always be on their guard, where savage tribes held sway, a land often as not immersed in a low level of war, either between the tribes or between a tribe and western civilization, and where a man depended on his wits and weapons, and was not able to depend upon the force of law.

During his formative years, George Washington experienced what life was like on the frontier. While acting as a courier before the French and Indian War, he and a companion traveled along a wilderness pathway. They met an Indian who shared their fire and traveled with them. Suddenly, without warning, the Indian fired his musket at George Washington and his companion, missing both. George learned that on the frontier, there was no rule of law, only that of naked force. The history of the frontier is full of examples such as this. Those who traveled on the frontier, both those belonging to Indian tribes and others, were outside the rule of law. In civilized country, the rule of law was enforced, and extra legal violence was rare.

The frontier ended in the United States about 1885. The rule of law and Western Civilization had been extended over all of the United States, and could be generally depended on. For a period of perhaps 20 years, a golden age existed in the United States. Success generates its own problems. The very end of the existence of the frontier was used as a pretext for a "Progressivism" that considered the Constitution to be old fashioned and infinitely malleable without the necessity of following legal forms. Teddy Roosevelt was one of the prime promoters of this notion, and Progressives of both parties fought with classical liberals until the Hoover administration, when progressives become dominant in both parties, the national political scene, and popular culture for the next 60 years.

Early progressives took advantage of a large storehouse of morality and common American values to build their empire, but the empire, based as it was on a philosophical underpinning directly at odds with the fundamental values of America's founding, did nothing to replenish those values, and did much to undermine them.

There is no fundamental principle to "progressivism" but the desire for power and the belief in the nearly infinite malleability of human nature and the nation by the national elite. The attempt to social engineer, or change society, in the directions that the elite desired, resulted in the attack on traditional morality and belief in national values. Intrusive government control cannot be imposed easily on people who look down on sloth and dependency, and who value personal independence. Early progressives were so immersed in the sea of Judeo/Christian values in which they lived, that they mistook them as the natural state of man, rather than as hard learned lessons that each generation had to relearn through family, church, tradition, and shared national history. Because of this fundamental mistake about human nature, many were surprised when their attacks on church, tradition, family and shared national values resulted in the rise of multitudes of young men reduced to the default position of human nature, where the individual never progresses beyond the childish "I want" stage or progresses only a step up to tribalism, where all outside the tribe are the enemy, and those inside the tribe are "the people".

The rise of these multitudes, primarily concentrated in the inner city cores, have brought about an era of American history with a new, urban, frontier.

Once again, most of the country is safe, while those who live next to the modern frontier have to be on constant guard of their lives and their possessions. In the modern frontier, the rule of law and Western Civilization has broken down. A man travels there at his peril. It is once again necessary to depend on one's wits and ones weapons for safety. The tribes of the modern frontier are often at war, and a low state of warfare continually exists with the rest of the nation. As in the past, the level of violent death outside the modern frontier and its borders is quite low, approximating that of other Western civilizations. Inside the frontier, violent death rates are much higher, and approximate that of other societies where the rule of law is not dependable.

Progressives who have created this situation cannot admit that their policies are the causative agent of this level of violence and death. To admit this would mean that their philosophy and faith are a sham and a failure. They would have to work against everything they have worked for their entire lives. They would have to give up their power, perks, and privileges. Instead, they do what nearly all adults do when faced with facts that repudiate their core beliefs about the nature of reality. They deny them. They create conspiracy theories to explain them. They blame anyone and everyone except their own actions. At its core, modern progressivism is a denial of personal responsibility.

If we are to reverse the Progressive policies that have created the savage tribes among us, we need to reinforce the hard lessons that Western Civilization learned through millennia of trial and error. The family is the bedrock of society, and must be reinforced by tradition, church, and law. Personal responsibility must accompany personal liberty. Those who violate others liberty and property must be made responsible for their actions; personal responsibility must be taught as paramount, rather than the intellectual vacuity that claims nonsensical "collective responsibility". The entire idea of "collective responsibility" is simply a disguised way to deny individual responsibility, and to allow the individual to do anything without accepting responsibility for their actions. Promotion of individual responsibility without individual liberty will fail. If all individual actions are required or regulated by the State, individual responsibility becomes impossible. If the State requires you to wear a seat belt, then you no longer make a decision to be responsible when you buckle your seat belt. The State has made that decision for you. In order to make individual responsibility viable, the individual must be allowed to fail.

A glimmer of hope exists in the resurgence of carrying of arms by responsible members of society. The savage tribes in the inner cities do not lawfully carry arms; they do not recognize the law of civilized society. Responsible members of society have recognized the necessity and responsibility to carry arms for their own protection, especially when they are in or near the urban frontier. They also realize that while raids outside of the modern frontier are rare, they exist, and need to be protected against. The triumph of Western Civilization in the golden era at the end of the 19th century had convinced many that the carrying of personal arms was anachronistic and unnecessary. Unsurprisingly, this attitude coincided with the ascendency of "Progressivism". The rise of the modern urban frontier and the savage tribes that inhabit it, created by Progressive policies, has made the carrying of arms a resurgent sign of individual responsibility. A citizen that carries personal arms proudly proclaims his rights and responsibilities. Bearing arms loudly extols the willingness to accept the highest levels of personal responsibility and the invalidity of collective responsibility. This trend shows that the Constitution has not been completely destroyed, that a core culture of personal responsibility yet exists outside of the "Progressive" strongholds, that we have a chance to bring about a resurgence of Western Civilization, and bring the modern urban frontier back under the rule of law.

The current savage tribes are dependant on the products of civilized society. They depend on the recruitment of new members from broken families supported by the State. They depend on the money flowing into organized crime created by the Progressive policies of the old and new prohibition. It will take time, but these products can all be reduced to tolerable levels by a renewed recognition of the necessity of personal responsibility in our civilization. The exaltation of personal responsibility shown by the lawful carrying of arms not only reinforces the principle of personal responsibility, it makes membership in the savage tribes more costly. The replacement of failed public schools with private and charter schools that emphasize parental choice and personal responsibility can help dry up the replacements needed to maintain the savage tribes in the modern urban frontier, as can a resurgence of Judeo/Christian values in churches. Removal of the support of the "Progressive" state from those institutions that preach against individual responsibility by emphasising a false "collective responsibility" will do a great deal to undercut the replacement of the tribes lost to inter tribal warfare, prison, and armed citizens. The strict enforcement of the law for small illegal acts helps to reinforce the principle of individual responsibility and makes life among the tribes less attractive. The replacement of State decisions in personal matters with personal decisions and responsibility for those decisions, can dry up the money from the new prohibition.

All of these things can be done. The question is whether there is enough of the values of Western Civilization left in the current population to overcome the platitudes of the old "Progressive" elite. The easy mechanism of elections still exist. We will soon see if it will be used to restore civilization or to enlarge the modern urban frontier to include the entire nation.

An earlier version of this essay was published in 2010. It has been revised and updated

Friday, May 24, 2013

“Gun Free Zones” don’t keep deranged gunmen away, they attract them. This is the theme of the latest piece by Independent Institute Research Fellow Don B. Kates Jr., an attorney and criminologist well known in the gun community for his research on firearms and crime. Kates points out that the tragedies of Sandy Hook, Aurora, and Columbine took place in part because the killers were confident they would not encounter armed resistance.

“When confronted by armed police, gunmen sometimes surrender though more often they kill themselves,” Kates writes. “At the risk of belaboring the obvious, what neither terrorists nor lunatics ever do is kill themselves (or surrender) when faced by unarmed victims.”

Kates offers numerous success stories of armed resistance, especially in Israel, where policy changes have armed teachers, school bus drivers, and parent-volunteers guarding children. Incidents of gunmen attacking civilians have fallen sharply. Closer to home, after a shooter killed two unarmed victims at Clackamass Town Center in Portland, Oregon, last December, he encountered an armed gun-permit holder. Instead of attempting to continue his murder spree, he turned his gun on himself. “To reiterate,” Kates continues, “such armed resistance works—unlike other steps which just waste money in order to create a false illusion of safety.”

A
TX man, who was in the process of moving to Maine, made a very simple
mistake, and never made it to his hew home. Dustin Reininger is serving a
3-5 year prison sentence in the Garden State because he made a mistake,
he stopped to take a nap in NJ during his multi day drive from Texas to
Maine.

Police approached Reininger’s car when he was taking a nap near a bank in Readington, NJ.
Police then searched the suspect’s vehicle after seeing gun cases
laying in the back seat and found the man’s personal gun collection,
which was being transported in the car. This included 14 rifles, 4
shotguns and 3 handguns along with hollow point ammunition (which is
extremely illegal to possess in public in NJ). Reininger was arrested,
convicted and sentenced to 5 years in prison, with a chance for parole
after 3.

Reininger would not have been arrested if his guns were simply in
locked cases, or if he possessed a NJ Firearm Owner’s Identification
Card, which not being a resident of NJ, he obviously did not possess.

Reininger’s attorney has serious issues with the way the search was
conducted on his client’s vehicle and he is also upset that jurors were
not told about a federal law which allows people who are traveling to
transport guns through states which may have more restrictive gun laws.
Although the transportation exemption also requires guns to be locked
and inaccessible.

Reininger’s case is in the news once again because he just lost his
appeals case. The only further step he and his attorneys can take is to
petition the New Jersey Supreme Court.

CASTLETON TWP, Mich.- Wednesday, 26-year-old Samantha Minehart was stabbed while feeding the horse in her family’s barn. Police were called to the home for reports of a stabbing and gunshots fired around 11 a.m. Police set up a perimeter, but the suspect was not found.

The Minehart Family says this is the 3rd time they’ve had to call police because there were strange people outside their home. One time, it ended with Samantha’s Fiancé being punched.

Patty Minehart, Samantha’s mother, described Wednesday’s attack, “He just told her don’t do anything stupid when he had the knife around her neck.”

There are marks where Samantha had the knife held to her neck. She was stabbed in the stomach and leg resulting in 11 stitches. Samantha says the man left as she fired two shots, missing him both times. Patty says Samantha was carrying a gun because they’ve had problems before.

When music fans think of West Coast rapper Ice-T, Ted Nugent may not be the first name that immediately comes to mind. But that’s who the rapper is teaming up with for a new documentary about the heated gun control debate.

The recently announced film, “Assaulted: Civil Rights Under Fire,” looks at the background of the Second Amendment.

“'Assaulted’ turns the gun debate around. It is a civil rights issue, and we take a look at the history of the Second Amendment. It’s a right that has been abused over the years and one that gets overlooked the most,” the film’s executive producer, writer and director, Kris Koenig, told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “It’s a self-defense right that gets distorted into self-offense. Our civil rights are very precious to us. The reason our country exists is to balance individual rights against the whole. It has kept our country safe.”

(CNN) -- Items taken from Trayvon Martin's cell phone -- including text-message discussion of drug use and pictures of a gun and marijuana plants -- are among new details released Thursday by attorneys for the neighborhood watch volunteer accused of killing him without provocation 14 months ago.

The evidence, George Zimmerman's attorneys say, paints a different picture of the 17-year-old than the one portrayed by his family and supporters. Lead defense attorney Mark O'Mara says he will try to use the evidence if prosecutors attempt to attack Zimmerman's character during his trial on second-degree murder charges, set to begin next month.

Much of the evidence disclosed Thursday in filings by Zimmerman's attorneys comes from Trayvon's cell phone, including photos showing a semiautomatic pistol and ammunition and small marijuana plants growing in pots.

Today Florida Carry, Inc., filed an action to stop Daytona Beach's illegal practice of refusing to return firearms to people, including veterans, who were Baker Acted but found to be no danger to themselves or others. For too long, many jurisdictions throughout Florida have refused to follow the law. In 2009 the Florida Attorney General made clear in an opinion that the continued detention of firearms after a person was released without being found to be a danger to themselves or others was prohibited by Florida law. Despite the clear instruction from the Attorney General and the legal prohibition on creating their own firearms rules since 1987, these individuals and agencies who have sworn to uphold the law, have instead violated the law and the Constitutional rights of law-abiding Florida gun owners. It is time to hold these jurisdictions responsible and require that these people in authority follow the laws they swore an oath to uphold and enforce.

I do not think that the elite in this country has any idea of the caliber of men and women that they are constantly poking with a stick, with their infringements on the Bill of Rights.

I put in paragraphs and bold to aid in clarity.

Update: to be clear, this article is from opencarry.org, where poster Vandil gives a review of the Combat in and Around Vehicles course that he attended in northern Wisconsin, and comments on his review.

The first link is to the inquiry that Vandil posted on opencarry.org that led to his attendance at the course. The source link is at the end of the article.

Combat in and around vehicles

After 2 months of snow delays I recently completed the vehicle combat training class I posted inquiries about last November.

We covered multiple scenarios, over multiple courses, using multiple weapons including AR-15 pistol/rifle engagements, and vehicles.

Friendly targets were mixed in through the hostiles, engagements ranged from 2ft to 80yrds. Targets were fired on using both hands, strong hand, and off hand.

All the targets were wearing T-shirts which was a nice touch.

I went through 200rnds .45acp, 200rnds 9mm, 150rnds 5.56mm and learned more than I could possible write down. I had several revelations during the day that changed completely how I looked at certain scenarios and how I would react if presented with them today.

Highlight of the day was probably completing a fast moving left handed course, brass rolling off the roof, and turning on the windshield wipers to clear 40 rnds of brass off the vehicle.

Cleaning up I found brass everywhere including jammed in my intake vents, radiator, roof rack, and rear bumper. I've still got brass rolling around under the seats and powder burns on my mirrors and hood.

My BDU's didn't survive, leaving with the bottom of my left leg half ripped off and 2 nice holes in the other leg.

Easily the most informative and fun training class I've taken so far.

Having an experienced mag monkey was also great as the flow of full magazines was non stop and no time was wasted reloading mags.
Just wanted to say thanks, that was a great training class I'd take it again any day.
Vandil

AaronS:

"Sounds like a great time. Boy, that was a lot of ammo in one day. I would have loved to just be able to watch the class."

Firearms Instructor:

"If any one is interested in doing similar training or other firearms training. I am a certified pistol, rifle, and shotgun instructor.

With decades of instructing experience, from basic firearm to advance tactics back by 33 years of LEO experience and tactical training.

Feel free to PM and we will work something out."

ccwinstructor:
I have known Firearms Instructor for decades

ccwinstructor:

"When you know someone so well, and have been active codefenders of Constitutional rights for so long, it may be hard to be objective.

He is an excellent instructor who takes his craft very seriously. He is a better shot than I am and much better at hand to hand. I do *write* better than he does, but that is because of differences of emphasis and practice. Firearms instruction has been a side business to me for 15 years. It has been an essential part of his profession for more than 30.

He has the added benefit of being an active hunter, of having actually killed hundreds of big game animals in the field. He knows and understands terminal ballistics. I only wish that I had his abilities with a shotgun, and I have been an active shotgun wing shooter for 47 years. Do you remember the Beverly Hillbillies, when Jed and Jethro were shooting flies (on the wing, with rifles) in their driveway? He has deliberately shot flies (with a rifle) that landed on his target at 200 yards. I think he once got three in a row.

If you go for this training, do not expect him to give demonstrations to impress you. He will be all business, working hard to give you the best value for your hard earned money.

I doubt that there are any other people and places that combine the private property with the physical capabilities of conducting this training safely and the level of expertise and experience offered.

I know the "mag monkey" as well. If you had to pay his going rate, the class would have tripled in price. He is a national level competitor, and Firearms Instructor has been his mentor.

I am proud to call both of them friends and brothers in the gun culture. I would trust either one of them with my life."

Detroit, Michigan – -(Ammoland.com)- This past Saturday, May 18th, 2013, approximately 50 gun rights activists attended a “Guns for Groceries” event to stage a demonstration of their own against the Wayne County (MI) government.

The Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano and the Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon teamed up with a local church (The New St. Paul Tabernacle Church of God in Christ), the Meijer’s grocery store chain, and the Goodman-Acker law firm to entice citizens to turn in their guns on a “no questions asked” basis.

All month long commercials were being ran over the airwaves seeking to convince Detroit residents that the cause of the violence in their town was caused by guns owned by them. Thus, if they wanted to reduce the amount of violent crime in Detroit, the “obvious” solution floated by the local county government was for everybody to sell their firearms for a $50 gift card to buy groceries at Meijer’s.

Local Detroit gun rights activists, however, know the truth about these “guns for goods” program ran by local governments all across our country:

They have never been proven to have any positive effect on violent crime rates.

They encourage firearm thefts because no questions will be asked.

They potentially lead to the destruction of evidence used in crimes.

They lead to the destruction of personal property of the rightful owners.

They consume public resources that could be used to fight crime.

They exploit the poor by offering $50 for potentially valuable hardware.

They mislead the public by creating only a “feel good” fluff story in the media.

Accordingly, gun rights activists who are members of a variety of local organizations (e.g. Legally Armed in Detroit, Michigan Open Carry, Inc., Michigan Gun Owners, and Michigan Coalition of Responsible Gun Owners) set up for business in the parking lot of a local fast-food restaurant located next door to the church. Activists made sure that they were equipped to comply with current state law by having either a Michigan Concealed Pistol License or a Michigan Pistol Purchase Permits and Michigan Pistol Sales Record Forms.

Gun rescued by local gun rights activist

The protest was an instant success. Cars that carried people looking for the church had to drive by the gun rights activists in the parking lot. As such, many people pulled over and were willing to part with their firearms for cash, often more than $50, instead of a gift card for groceries.

It didn’t take long for the county officials to discover why their event wasn’t as successful as they thought it would be. In fact, about an hour into the selling period, the Wayne County Executive himself, Robert Ficano, pulled into the parking lot where the gun rights activists were set up and exited his vehicle to survey what was happening. He left 10 minutes. In his place, Wayne County deputies were sent to the lot in his place.

From that moment forward until the event ended, the gun rights activists were harassed by all day by Wayne County deputies. Their first act was to park one of their marked cars by the parking lot’s entrance and started directing people further up the street to the church.

Then a deputy went into the fast-food restaurant and talked to the manager on duty. We do not know what they told the manager, but suddenly, the restaurant reversed its decision to allow gun rights activists onto its property. Prior to contact with the deputies, their presence was allowed as long as it did not interfere with customers buying food.

Thus, the gun rights activists were ejected from the parking lot and had to move their cars. Apparently, the deputies thought their actions were enough to deter the activists. They couldn’t have been more wrong. The activists adjusted by walking up and down the public sidewalk while holding their signs.

The deputies responded by telling them that they would start writing tickets for both being on and obstructing the sidewalk in front of the church. It would be a hour or so later before discussions with the top deputy in charge confirmed that walking on the sidewalk was legal and that all deputies would be apprised of that fact.

One gun rights activists was detained for a while. It is unclear why it happened. After he was released, Rick Ector from Legally Armed In Detroit, interviewed him so that he could tell us what happened. Check out the video for an account in his own words.

At the end of the day, the Wayne County government bought 200 guns – many of them inoperable pieces of junk. The activists bought 40 guns in working condition. The activists prevailed because they did not quit, especially after being harassed by the Wayne County government.

About The Author

Rick Ector is a National Rifle Association credentialed Firearms Trainer, who provides Michigan CCW Class training in Detroit for students at his firearms school – Rick’s Firearm Academy of Detroit.

Ector is a recognized expert in firearm safety and has been featured extensively in the national and local media: Associated Press, NRAnews, Gun Digest, The Politics Daily, Fox News Detroit, The Detroit News, WJLB, WGPR and the UrbanShooterPodcast.

Yesterday, Texas HB 48 passed the senate. It is now on its way to the governor for a signature. This means that there is no longer a requirement for renewal courses every five years to maintain a CHL.
HB 48 would eliminate the requirement for a CHL holder to demonstrate handgun proficiency by taking a continuing education course to renew the license. The bill would repeal Government Code sections 411.188 (c) and 411.188 (j), which require a continuing education course for CHL renewal and would specify how DPS should adopt rules for this course.
DPS would mail a notice of license expiration, a renewal application form, and an informational form to a CHL holder at least 60 days before the person’s license expired. To renew the license, a CHL holder would have to submit electronically or via an application for renewal, payment of the nonrefundable fee and the signed informational form describing pertinent state laws such as those related to deadly force. DPS would issue the renewed license not later than 45 days after receiving these materials. The director of DPS could adopt rules enabling CHL renewal after the license holder submitted these materials by mail or online.
Active and retired peace officers carrying a handgun under an extension of the CHL license would not need to take continuing education courses or examinations. The bill would repeal Government Code, sec. 411.199 (e). The director of DPS would adopt rules as soon as practicable after the effective date of this bill. The bill would apply only to applications submitted on or after the effective date.
The bill would take effect September 1, 2013.
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/BillStages.aspx?LegSess=83R&Bill=HB48
Source: Weapon-blog.com

On Friday, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed into law the state’s comprehensive new gun control laws. The new laws, the stated purpose of which is to “save lives,” ban some “assault weapons” (whatever the heck gun grabbers think those imaginary weapons are), limits magazine capacity to ten rounds, and requires mandatory fingerprinting for gun purchase.

The first two prohibitions prove definitely that Maryland has no interest in “saving lives.” If it did, it would have paid attention to the fact that the Department of Justice has issued a report conceding that crime goes down when legal gun ownership goes up.

The legislation would make illegal the company’s ARX 100, which is Beretta’s newly issued civilian version of the ARX-160, a tactical rifle used in Italy

The magazine size limit also puts Beretta in a legal bind. For several of the guns in its product line, Beretta would no longer be able to stock appropriate, standard capacity magazines. While this wouldn’t necessarily force Beretta to close, it would complicate Beretta’s corporate life to the point of “why bother?”.

Guns are Tightly Controlled, but The U.S. Virgin Islands has one of the Highest Homicide Rates in the World

Not counted as a state or a city, the U.S. Virgin Islands is often missed in statistics about gun control in the United States.

Gun ownership is tightly regulated, with permission to own a gun only granted by the Police Commissioner upon application, and subject to the Commissioner's discretion. Even antique firearms, which are not regulated under U.S. Federal law, are not allowed unless they are inspected and "rendered useless".

476. Collections of antique firearms; certificates of
uselessness.

No provision hereof shall prevent that private collections
of antique firearms, which may not be used as weapons. be
preserved and maintained and that their owners possess them as
ornaments or as matters of curiosity, nor the collections of
firearms kept as relics, but for the preservation of any weapon
of those included in this section the prior inspection thereof
and approval therefor by the Commissioner shall be necessary and
he shall render such firearms unless, so that the same may not be
used as such. The Commissioner shall issue a certificate of
uselessness of all the weapons possessed under the provisions of
this section, and the possession of any firearm not included in
said certificate shall be subject to all the provisions hereof.
****

In spite of, or perhaps because of, the extremely restrictive firearms laws in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the homicide rate may have been the highest in the United States in 2010, exceeding that of New Orleans or Washington, D.C., cities that often vie for the dubious distinction.

In 2010, Washington,D.C. had a murder rate of about 38 per 100,000. New Orleans had a a murder rate of 58 per 100,000.

The U.S. Virgin Islands, with a population of only 110,000, had a murder rate of 60 per 100,000.

The murder rate dropped in 2011, and rose again in 2012, averaging 45 per 100,000 for the three years. This is still one of the highest murder rates in the world.

Because the U.S. Virgin Islands are not a state, and not a city, most statistical crime analysis miss it completely.

Murder rates are primarily related to culture, not to the instruments used or to gun laws.

A man held an intruder at gunpoint in his home Tuesday night while waiting for law enforcement to arrive, according to Colorado Springs police.

Jeremy Strong, 38, was relaxing with his family around 9 p.m. when he heard glass shattering and his wife screaming. A man had broken into his house, located on the 1900 block of South Corona Avenue, east of Southgate Road.

First, some background about me: I am a Ph.D.-holder and tenured professor whose immersion in the insular politics of academia had led me to harbor many negative perceptions about firearms. Though I was never staunchly "anti-gun," I was not a gun owner, did not understand the appeal of firearms, and generally believed that gun control legislation was only common sense. That changed four years ago when I (finally) decided to look into the data on guns, crime, and public safety for myself. I am a trained researcher, but I conducted my research for personal not professional reasons. My wife was pregnant and I wanted hard facts--not talking point from the political parties--so I could make an informed decision about what to teach my children about firearms, and whether it would be prudent or dangerous to have one in our house.

I was drawn into that research almost immediately by the sheer force of my own disbelief. I discovered fact after fact that starkly disproved the claims and "facts" so many teachers and colleagues had expressed about firearms and their relationship to violence, and which, during my long trip through academia, had led me to believe stricter gun control was just plain common sense. For two years, I read thousands of pages of information, starting with raw data from the FBI and CDC so that I would be better able to assess the claims I subsequently read in books, peer-reviewed journals, news publications, blogs, and so forth. In the course of that research, I came across numerous references to John Lott's studies, but so many of them suggested there were "fatal flaws" in his methodology (and questions about his motives) that I never bothered to read him. I simply assumed based on the sheer number of such comments that his work was indeed more propaganda than serious study. Nonetheless, I turned up enough information over the course of two years to completely change my view about guns. I now believe wholeheartedly in the right to carry, the wisdom of the 2nd Amendment, the particularly important benefits of concealed carry for women, and the notion that more firearms in law-abiding hands does make society demonstrably safer.

Now that I have finally read John Lott's "More Guns, Less Crime" (3rd edition, 2010), I am ashamed that I did not consult it earlier instead of accepting at face value the facile criticisms of his work. Lott's research and claims are astonishingly thorough--meticulously explained and documented. At every turn, he (accurately and clearly) explains the challenges, assumptions, and variables that inform his findings. Often, just to cover his bases, he runs the data with, and then without, certain questionable variables (arrest rates, county sizes, etc.). Again and again, he shows that with only slight variations in the magnitude of the results, more concealed carry permits equals less violent crime (murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robberies involving direct contact with the victim, such as muggings). He also observes that those permits may contribute to a smaller "substitution effect" that displaces criminal activity into less-confrontational forms, such as property theft. On all counts, this constitutes powerful evidence that the likely presence of a defensive firearm has a statistically significant deterrence effect on criminal behavior. More concealed carry permits lead to a net decline in assaults and deaths, and a net decline in the financial costs to society. Moreover, these benefits apply to all citizens--not just those who are armed--and they increase over time, as the number of carry permits rises. They also have the greatest positive impact on African Americans and women.

Private citizens perform experiments in social engineering as well. In this case some private citizens will give peace a chance, one free shotgun at a time. They think firearms will reduce crime.

The debate about violent crime is long running. To find out if guns will make us safer, we have to go talk to likely victims, and crime is anything but uniform. There are dangerous cities and violent areas within those cities. The Armed Citizen Project reaches out to the needy in our violent and crime ridden neighborhoods. They teach single moms in high crime areas about self-defense. Like all proper experiments, these potential victims, training and firearms are mixed under carefully controlled conditions.

The participants in the Armed Citizen Project are vetted. They are screened for criminal convictions, drug use, and must also pass a firearms background check. Then they are given instruction on home security, firearms storage and the legal and ethical use of deadly force. All this happens before they receive firearms instruction, including hands-on time at the range. They must pass each class before they are given a free gun and gun lock. Applicants are selected and trained in a several block area at one time. The first class from Houston, Texas graduated a few weeks ago. Classes are being organized in Tucson, Chicago and Detroit.

Now those targeted trained blocks, near Jester Park on Houston’s north side, are posted and publicized as an armed self-defense zones. What do you think will happen to the crime rate in those areas? Few criminals want to die in a stranger’s hallway. I think criminals will think twice about a burglary when the apartment could be occupied and the occupant might be armed and trained. Burglars will spend more time making sure the house is empty, and that takes time. Maybe a burglar will decide to rob apartments in some other part of town. We will see, because the Armed Citizen Project is collecting crime statistics in these areas and comparing the results against pre-selected control areas. Good experiments have a control group.

The armed citizen project predicts that the crime rate will drop. I think they’re right. Time will tell, and soon we will have another enduring truth to add to our SlowFacts. I met Kyle Coplen and the Armed Citizen’s Project in Houston. They have instructors lined up, but their rate of growth is limited by donations.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

She is not following Virginia law when issuing CHPs, so VCDL is petitioning the Virginia Supreme Court to issue a Writ of Mandamus against Ms. Braxton!

(A Writ of Mandamus is where the Supreme Court orders a government official to do their job in cases where the official has no discretion under Virginia law.)

This all started when VCDL was notified by member Michael McNeill that Ms. Braxton’s office was requiring CHP applicants to take a check for $35 and their application to the Petersburg Police Department. Then, when the background check was completed, the applicant was to go to Ms. Braxton’s office and give her a check for $15. On top of that violation of law, renewals through the mail were not allowed by Ms. Braxton.

The law is clear: only one check is to be provided and it is to be given to the Clerk or an agent of the Clerk. It is also clear that a CHP holder can renew their application through the mail.

About 50 people showed up at high noon in Yuma to exercise their First and Second Amendment rights. A common theme among the Tea Party members was that using the machinery of government to suppress dissent and political opposition is the very essence of tyranny.

Signs varied from "Shut Down the IRS" to "We will not be Intimidated" to "Obama IRS Tyrant!" to "Congress disregards the Constitution it's up to us to do something"

About 50 Protesters Showed up.

I counted nearly 40, and several joined the group over the next 15 minutes.
The mood of the crowd was upbeat, looking forward to the 2014 elections, but weary of 5 years of the current administration and its scandals. In Yuma, the Fast and Furious scandal has been known for years, in spite of being played down in the national press.

A protester said that he wanted to see people go to jail.

The Gadsden flag and the American flag were prominently displayed.

One Protester wore this Fancy Single Action Rig based on the 3:10 to Yuma Movie

At least six open carriers were seen, with several people telling me that they were carrying concealed. A conservative estimate would be that at least 20 percent of the protesters were armed with firearms.

Tea Party members favored revolvers, and no rifles or shotguns were seen.

As could be expected for a protest organized in only a few days and held during the middle of the work week, many protesters appeared to be of retirement age.

Traffic on the street signaled their appreciation of the protest with honking horns and waving hands.

Unlike a pre-election rally, no discouraging signs were seen from the traffic passing by.

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Background

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” -- Thomas Jefferson

Syndicated columnist Charley Reese (1937-2013): "Gun control by definition affects only honest people. When a politician tells you he wants to forbid you from owning a firearm or force you to get a license, he is telling you he doesn’t trust you. That’s an insult. ... Gun control is not about guns or crime. It is about an elite that fears and despises the common people."

The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles -- Jeff Cooper (1920-2006)

Note for non-American readers: Crime reports from America which describe an offender just as a "teen" or "teenager" almost invariably mean a BLACK teenager.

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics.

Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?" Freedom to agree with them is the only freedom they believe in)

First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean

It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.

The intellectual Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) said: "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

How much do you know about Trayvon Martin? Did you recognize him in the picture above? If not you may need to know more about him. It's all here (Backups here and here)

“An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.” -- Robert A. Heinlein

After all the serious stuff here, maybe we need a funny picture of a cantankerous cat